SOLIDARITY WITH ROZBRAT SQUAT FROM ATHENS

Molly

SOLIDARITY WITH ROZBRAT SQUAT -IN POLAND- THREATENED WITH REPRESSION

Rozbrat squat, active for 16 years now in the city of Poznan, the longest occupied space in Poland, houses social, political and cultural activities that oppose the world of Authority and profit, of social and class divisions. Today it is one more of the self-organized spaces of resistance which are facing repressive plans.

Some of the projects being housed in the squat -connecting it with struggles against globalization, class exploitation, state repression, persecution and imprisonment of strugglers, pillage of nature, racism, war etc- are the Anarchist Federation and the Anarchist Black Cross of Poznan, the Workers’ Initiative, the Anarchist Library and Trojka publishing house.

On March 26, 2010 an auction has been scheduled for the purchase of the premises where the largest part of the squat is situated so that the debts of the previous owning company can be paid out. It is a process which started in January 2008, when the squat was “visited” by a bailiff with the assistance of the police in order to estimate the value of the ground.

The solidarity compaign for the defense of Rozbrat which the squatters began from the first moment, has been echoed throughout Poland as well as internationally. In March 2009, a big solidarity demonstration took place in Poznan in view of the auction held at that time and during which no buyer was found, whereas a recent dynamic demonstration was held on 20 March.

Over the last year the squatters have had to face a new threat. It is a plan processed by the city council of Poznan for the “development” of the region where the squat is located. According to this plan, which is strongly opposed not only by the squatters but also by other residents of the area, a villa neighborhood is to be built on the location of Rozbrat that has been identified as “wastelands”. Several mobilizations have taken place aiming at the blockage of this plan. Recently, on 8th March 2010, fifty people from Rozbrat squat collective gathered outside the venue of the congress of local councils from all over Poland, blocking the access of participants. When the gathered people attempted to enter the venue of the congress the police attacked and arrested 37 people.

From Lelas Karagianni squat, a space directly connected to the social and class struggle for social liberation which has repelled repressive plans and fascist attacks against it thanks to the solidarity of comrades and society for 22 years, we express our solidarity to Rozbrat squat which is threatened by repression.

Against the attempts to destroy the squatted social-political spaces in Europe, placing them under the siege of repression and speculation, our answer is that “every strike against one of us is a strike against all of us”. Let’s remember Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen, where the decisive struggle of squatters and the people in solidarity finally forced the local authorities to retreat.

The self-organized collective spaces of social resistance are part of the struggle for a world of freedom without states and bosses, without oppression and exploitation. In Athens, in Poznan and everywhere they are going to win and they are going to spread!